Deadly Shadows
by Foxton Stokholm
Summary: During the the prison days, the group meets a girl from Louisiana named Clair, and Daryl has already have met this girl. But as she and the remainder of Rick's group arrive at a sanctuary named Terminus, Clair's past during the apocalypse begins to unfold, and some events Daryl never known. And those events involve people they would have never expected.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter1**

 _The night sky hovered over Clair, who was standing in the middle of a street in Woodbury. She was all alone, as if she was in a ghost town._

 _ **Ghost**_ _, she thought. Suddenly, everything went dark an cold. She could hardly see her surroundings. Then, she heard footsteps. Chills crawled up her spine. She knew what it meant, she knew what was coming, and she didn't want to face that evil again. She felt for her knife when she saw a dead body laying right in front of her._

 _Milton..._

 _Tears ran down her face. She couldn't stand to see him like that again. It was painful to even think of the image. She found the knife she carried on her belt and stabbed her arm, saying, "Wake! Up!"_

Clair woke up in a car she shared with Michonne and Carl, which were still sleeping. She looked out one of the car windows and saw Rick and Daryl carrying a conversation, probably about the events that occured the previous , she looked beside her and saw her wolf, Kerchakt. The wolf had a brown coat with black streeks all over.

Clair sighed."You excited?" Clair looked up and saw Michonne looking staight at her. "I'm not sure," Clair replied. She rubbed Kerchact's head, then said," I need some air." Clair then opened the door on the opposite side of Rick and Daryl.

"Hey,Clair," Daryl said once she joined

them."Hey, Daryl. Can you guys do me a favor?"

"It depends on the favor," says Rick."It's a small favor,Rick."

Rick motions Clair to sit down. When she did, Rick asks," What is the favor?"

"When we get to Terminus," Clair begins,"I want to go by myself to explore and see if anything dosen't look right." Then Daryl presses,"And us?"

" One of you is going to be carrying my stuff because it will slow me down and I don't want to bury it because..." Clair's voice trailed off."Never mind, it's stupid."

"I'll cary it for you," Daryl said insistantly."You don't have to-"

"I want to," Daryl interrupted." If whatever you have in there is that close to you, sure. I mean, you think I would bury this?" Daryl smiled and patted his crossbow that he had in his lap. Clair couldn't help but give a weak smile. "Thanks Daryl." She then gave Daryl a small hug before getting up to head towards the woods.

"Don't wander off too far!" Daryl called. Clair froze. Those words, those esact words...

" I won't," she replies and dissapears in the forest."Strange..." Daryl mutters.

" Why did you agree to take her stuff?" Rick asks. "She has been having a hard time," Daryl answered,"harder than she can usually handle. She's been crying in her sleep and then she starts to thrash around. I thought it was the least I could do to help her out." Daryl then lets his gaze wander off." There's something else," he continues." While she cries in her sleep, she seems to be... smiling."

Rick's eyes widened. For Clair, that was strange. For as long as they have known her, she has never done that.

A man sits alone inside what seems to be a storage unit. In between the candles that were lit, there was a picture of a little red headed girl that was laying down, holding two fingers up, and smiling at the cameraman. Just looking about that picture made all the memories of her flooded the man's mind. He wanted to stay so he could go through all those memories, but he couldn't.

He had work to do.

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, that's why I'll be posting chapter 2 later.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter2**

Clair walks through the forest terrain that lay before knew these parts well, painfully a few more minuets of walking, she comes upon an old,tall tree with a stub where a limb used to be. She then hears a voice in the back of her mind that she hadn't heard in ages, _his_ voice.

 _You're lucky I was around._

Just hearing that voice made Clair smile,but that smile soon turned into tears and cried for a few minuets. All of the sudden, she heard a little whine from behind the tree. She looked passed it and saw Kerchakt, sitting with his ears down, staring straight at her. And then, Daryl showed up." Hey kid,I... are you okay?"

Clair wiped the tears off her face with the sleeve of her jacket." Yeah," she answers."I'm fine." Daryl looked at her sympathetically for a few seconds, then said," Well, we're leaving soon. So, c'mon if you are travelling with us." Daryl then turned his back to Clair and started to walk back. While Daryl's back was turned, Clair slipped something in her bag and followed Daryl, signaling Kerchakt to do the same.

When they got back, the group resumed their journey to Terminus. While they walked, Clair had images of her when she was a little bit younger than what she was now. She used to be so happy, but that light has already dimineshed greatly for multiple reasons she couldn't explain to anyone. Then as the pictures in her mind got older, she saw an image of what she used to do before this plague started, stealing to support her baby brother.

Clair started to pull herself that domain. That was one of the memories that was to painful to remember, and she didn't want to break down infront of them, even if she was behind them as she did, she saw how broken she was before she met them. Not the people she was travelling with now, but _them_. She couldn't tell them, not wasn't the right time.

"Hey." Clair got back to reality and saw Carl walking beside her." Daryl told me what happened in the forest. Is there anything wrong?" Clair shook her head."I'm fine. Are you?" Carl looked away."Yeah." Silence swept over the two. Even though they were companions, they never talked to each other since the prison. Moments passed with silence until their journey came to an end.

They had reached there destination,Terminus. "Alright," Clair began."I'm gonna go ahead and do my thing." She then handed Daryl her bag, still stating he didn't have to. " You know I'll take good care of it," Daryl said. After that, Clair and her brown wolf dissapeared in the brush of the forest. Rick shook his head and put most of their weapons in a bag and burried it.

Clair had her back against one of the storage units that occupied Terminus. She had signaled Kerchakt go into a different direction before entering the domain. She waited until she couldn't see anyone around. But once she stepped out of the storage units' shadow, she heard a gasp. Clair imedeatly turned and drew her damascis steel knife. She saw an elderly woman with the expression of pure shock.

At the sight of the woman, Clair lowered her knife in surprise as well." Clair..." the woman uttered." You... you're alive?"

"Mary...?" Clair said." But... I thought..." She cut herself off while Mary put her hand over her mouth to cover her smile. But then, Mary shook her head." They can't see you yet," she said. " Go,my child, hide ." Clair did as she was bid, thinking how much she missed Mary saying those words to her, even in haste.

"Hello," Rick said as he and his group walked in from the back door. They were facing a group of strangers they figured that ran the sancturary."Well," said one of the men." I guess Albert is on watch." The man had dark brown hair, eyes to match, and a khaki jacket."So," he starts," are you here to rob us?"

"No," Rick answers.

"Are you here for sancturary?"

Rick nods. " Well. you found it." The man walks towards the group." I'm Gareth," he says."Welcome to Terminus."

"I'm Rick. This is Daryl,Michonne, and Carl." Gareth then motions one of his people over, a man with back,curly hair and eyes darker than Gareth's."This is my brother, Alex. Now, we are not that kind of people, but we're not stupid either. And you shouldn't be stupid enough to try anything, if you know what I mean. So, we must ask you to lay down your weapons."

The group looked at each other for awhile. Rick nodded to them, and they lay down their weapons and Daryl laid Clairs bag down behind him. After the group was frisked by the two brothers, they picked up their weapons and followed Alex out the door. But before he took a step out the door, Daryl hid the bag under some propped up plywood after making sure that no one was looking.

As the group followed Alex outside, Daryl looked at his surroundings. Some people were staring at them, but one of them stood out. A man that had three long scars on his right returned his gaze to their guide, who stopped infront of this booth where an elderly woman was serving people food." Can you cook up these people some food, Mary?" The woman nodded and got to work." I heard you came through the back door," she said. "Smart."

While Mary cooked them a meal, Rick took his chance to look at his surroundings. He noticed one person wearing a pancho that looked a lot like what Daryl used to wear and another wearing gear that looked exactly what they used at the prison. Something was wrong, Rick could sense it. He had to act fast.

As soon as Alex offered them a plate of unknown, Rick smacked the plate out of his hands, put him in a choke hold, and pointed a gun at his face. Rick then dug into Alex's pocket and pulled out a pocket watch, Hershel's pocket watch.

"Where did you get this?!"

Guns were pointed at everyone now, and Rick wasn't to keen on waiting for Alex to answer. " O-off a dead one," he stuttered."Didn't think he needed it." Rick then spun Alex, making him face the people wearing the clothing and gear that belonged to Rick's while Rick was handling Alex, Daryl noticed that Mary kept on shaking her head. He followed her gaze into the shadow of one of the storage units. Whoever was hiding, Daryl didn't have the time to figure it out.

"What about the pancho?" Rick demanded."And the gear?" Alex then looked over his shoulder direction Mary was looking and saw who was knew what would happen in result of all this, and so he whispered," I should've never let go. I'm so sorry..." Rick jerked Alex back in the original direction and said,"Answer me!"

"Found the pancho on a clothes line." Rick spun to see who finally answered.

It was Gareth, hands folded in front of him, and with the bitter coldness found in his eyes.

A/N: Upload dates have been changed to weekends depending on events.


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